Photograph by: Shaughn Butts

Before incurring their first loss of the week — a 9-5 defeat to Manitoba Wednesday night — Gushue and his Newfoundland/Labrador curling rink of Brier rookie third Brett Gallant, second Adam Casey and lead Geoff Walker won their seventh in a row with a totally dominant 7-3 win over Northwest Territories/Yukon in the afternoon.

Gallant is in his first year with Gushue; Casey and Walker are in just their second year.

“It’s like a good marriage,” Gushue said. “You have to take the good and the bad.

“We’ve all in our lifetimes had enough girlfriends that, you know, are nice people but you just didn’t want to be with them any more.

“That’s just like a curling team. There are nice guys, but you just don’t want to curl with them any more,” said Gushue, who at one point changed his front end six years in a row.

Skipping in his 10th Brier and still looking for his first overall win, Gushue is the only remaining member of his 2006 Olympic gold-medal team.

“Maybe I’m wrong but once you get the right personalities together you know you have the potential for a championship team,” said Gushue, whose best Brier finishes were silver in 2007 in Hamilton and bronze two years ago in

London, Ont.

Gallant, 23, the neophyte of the group, has been a particularly strong addition.

“He’s going to be one of the great players,” said Gushue, 32. “Ten years from now he’s going to be one of the guys that everybody is talking about. He’s going to be a star of the game.”

Curling at 90 per cent Wednesday afternoon, Gallant skipped his own team in Prince Edward Island last year — a team that had current P.E.I. skip Eddie MacKenzie in the lineup.

Then he got a call from Gushue, who had a spot open after parting ways with Ryan Fry, who is now curling with Northern Ontario’s team.

Having curled with Casey in junior, Gallant said he didn’t need much convincing.

“Brad asked me if I would be interested in moving over; it was pretty hard not to jump at that chance.

“We played the last tournament of last year, the Players Championship together. It was almost like a try out, I guess.

It was more to see if our chemistry was there and if we could make a good team together.”

That question was answered seven straight times at the Brier.

“On the ice, we try and all play our roles and are comfortable with that,” said Gushue, whose rink gave up four to Manitoba in the eighth end. “Off the ice we get along really well ... We have fun.”

There was no reason not to have fun Wednesday afternoon. Gushue’s rink opened with two points in the first end and never relinquished the lead.

After Northwest Territories/Yukon skip Jamie Koe made it 3-2 in the fifth end, Gushue answered right back with a hit and stick for two points in the sixth frame. Two more in the ninth and it was shake-hands time.

“Textbook,” said Gushue.

“It felt comfortable out there. We seemed in control.”

Unlike last year, when he ran into all the bears early in the week and emerged from those games with a 1-5 start, this time Gushue still has games left against Ontario on Thursday afternoon and then Alberta and Quebec on Friday.

“If we continue to play this way we are going to win as many against them as they are going to win against us,” said Gushue.

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